Page 74 of Omega Rock

Leo smiles warmly down at me and then nods to Aiden and Noah. “I’m sorry we’re going to miss another set.”

Noah levels him with a hard glance. “Seriously? It’s not important. Your wellbeing is.”

Aiden lifts an eyebrow but doesn’t have to say a word.What do you think we are, Lost Time?

“We agreed health and life before the band,” I say in Aiden’s stead. “As if we could even go on stage without you. Just focus on getting better.”

Leo frowns. “There’s no getting better from this, Mia. It just storms to the surface and takes what it wants, when it wants, and leaves nothing but razed bodies behind.”

“Dramatic,” Noah murmurs with enough sarcasm to let us know he’s not being serious.

The curtain around Leo’s hospital bed draws open and Dr. Norton appears. He’s been assigned to Leo since we got here. The severe look on his face coupled with his tight grip on his tablet says he wishes he wasn’t. “Mr. Altis is not wrong.”

I stand up quickly. “Is he going to be okay?”

Leo reaches for my hand again. “Mia.”

Dr. Norton looks past me to Leo and raises his tablet. “Your inflammation markers are, to no surprise, at severe levels. Your scans and imaging show the presence of some damage to your lungs, and I wouldn’t be surprised if as the pain in your arms wears off you feel some neuropathy start to set in.”

Leo closes his eyes and shakes his head. “I already have, in my fingers.”

I look between him and the doctor as the hole shearing open in my heart starts to grow. “So what happens next? You’ll treat him, right?”

Leo squeezes my hand.

Dr. Norton inhales sharply. “You’re not from here, correct?”

Leo shakes his head. “No, so I’m assuming you’ll recommend I get home as soon as possible.”

“Yes.” The doctor taps away on his tablet. “We’ll forward everything to your primary care provided and send you on your way with more steroids. But your rheumatologist will have to arrange treatment immediately.”

Leo’s face falls as the rest of us shift uncomfortably. This is the worst fucking news after the worst weekend ever. “I’ll call them. Thank you, Doctor.”

“I’m sorry I don’t have better news for you, Mr. Altis,” the doctor says.

“It’s okay,” Leo whispers. But it’s not. It’s not okay at all. “I guess the disease was bound to come out of remission at some point.”

“My guess is you’ve overdone it,” Dr. Norton says. “Rest, another round of treatments. That’s your focus now.”

“Yeah.” Leo sounds miles away.

I share looks with Aiden and Noah. I know before we’re back at the tour bus, with Leo discharged from the hospital and sleeping in his bunk, exactly how this is going to go.

How itshouldgo.

Exit Fate’s days on Knotty Tour are officially over.

ChapterTwenty-Five

AIDEN

I don’t really sleep.I try, but after two hours of tossing around, I quietly get up and leave the tour bus to sit outside in the cool summer nighttime air. For a while I consider building a fire and enjoying it like I would back home before all this band shit and related fame, but that’d probably get me arrested again.

Without really knowing why, I find myself spending the rest of the night clearing out my phone of every message, missed call, and email that’s been sitting unanswered since the night Jordan kicked me out of Designation Outsider. I’ve kept up with messages from Wes, obviously, and my pack in our early days before Knotty Tour, but that’s it really.

Not that we aren’t still early days. God, we are.

Would Exit Fate even exist after this weekend? Honestly, I found myself caring less and less—to my own surprise—as long as it meant Leo is okay. As long as ourpackis okay.

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